Friday, April 25, 2014

My Extreme Emotional Response to Rain

April showers, or any showers for that matter, aren't really a thing here in Fort Collins. I've lived here for almost six years and I still have not been able to come to terms with the dry climate. Other than my family and friends, the thing I miss the most about the Midwest are the thunderstorms. I miss the first rain-smelling gusts of wind, the pitter-patter of rain on the roof, counting the seconds between thunder and lightning, the after-storm smell of earth and worms, and finally, the vivid greens that result.

Here, we don't get full-on thunderstorms, and it often seems like we don't get any rain at all. I'm serious. We are very close to thunderstorm-less in Fort Collins. Isolated thunderstorms, yes, but I can't really count those when you have to be within a 2-mile radius of a storm cloud to experience a brief shower and thunder rumble. It's extremely frustrating. I'm getting all riled up just writing about it.

At this point, you may have picked up on the fact that I have an extremely emotional response to rain and Colorado weather in general. I'm often asked to calm down when I curse the skies after watching storm clouds that promise moisture slide over the foothills, completely break up above us, reform to the east of us, and totally skip us with their precious gift of moisture.

You know what makes it even worse? This meteorological event called "Virga." I'd never heard of or seen such a thing before living in CO. Now, it's the bane of my existence. Virga is when moisture-filled clouds manage to create some precipitation, only to have it evaporate before it hits the ground. Yeah, this happens a lot and it makes me really angry.

You're so stupid, Virga. Why can't you just learn how to rain properly?

On the flip side, I am overjoyed when I see just a few drops fall. If I see it begin to rain, I will jump up from whatever I'm doing and exclaim to anyone near or far that "it's raining!" while triumphantly throwing my arms into the air. Then, it stops, and I get that familiar feeling of precipitation disappointment. I haven't seen a good, solid rain since the catastrophic fall flood of last year, which made the experience bittersweet, obviously.

The whole point of this rain rant -- which could have been much, much, much longer, I assure you -- is to say that I'm super-duper excited for Sunday and the beginning of next week. Check out that forecast! We have a 70% chance of rain on Sunday! And then a chance for rain throughout the beginning of next week! The garden is gonna love it almost as much as me. Almost.

A sane person may not love seeing a week of 50-degree temps after two weeks of 70s and sunny, but I'm weather-crazy and I'm pumped!